Twins, Baseball, Music, and Other Random Musings

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I will be at the Twins/Royals game on July 20th, directly behind home plate (yes, in the fancy section). If that weren’t reason enough to watch, I will be dressed up in a Bigfoot costume with an Anthony Swarzak jersey on. Follow the adventure on Twitter with the has-tag #BigfootInKC2012.

So a little bit of background behind the Bigfoot story… Earlier in the year word came out, in some sort of interview, that Anthony Swarzak believed in bigfoot. I believe that it came up because there is a show on Hisstory, National Geographic, or some cable channel where people try to find bigfoot. Anthony went as far as saying that he would like to track bigfoot/sasquatch if given the chance (maybe Justin Morneau or Scott Diamond can help him, since they live in bigfoot-land Canada). Anthony had even mentioned that he’d like Jack Links jerkey to sponsor him, since their commercials feature a brief “Messin’ With Sasquatch” skits.

So that’s why I chose the bigfoot/Swarzak combo for the game. What I forgot to realize was the incredibly hot temperatures in July in Kansas City. Maybe it’ll just show that I am uber-dedicated… or just a fool. But with seats as nice as I have, why not do something stupid and fun. If I can make the Twins happy and help out in a small way (distract the Royals?) it can lead to a Twins victory.

Step 1: Pick out the bigfoot costume… for cheap. I found and purchased this one found on Amazon and eBay:

Step 2: Find a Swarzak jersey. I wanted to get a gamer or very nice jersey, but that would have gotten too expensive and could not be guaranteed. So I did the next best thing, use the interwebs to find a cheap uni. It isn’t the nicest one on the market, but since it’s just going to be on bigfoot and likely get drenched in sweat, it will do.

Step 3: Receive the bigfoot costume a week later. Here I am trying it on while swinging a bat.

Step 4: Test out which glove I want to be wearing. I am a ballhawk, so I still want to try to get a ball or two (or more) in KC. I don’t go to any stadium/game without my glove I own both a catcher’s mitt and an infielder’s glove (played both in High School). I thought the catcher’s mitt would work well since bigfoot could catch any Swarzak throws; a nice pitcher/catcher relationship could blossom. But then again, the infielder’s glove looks very nice, since you can see the finger stick out, there is also an added benefit of the infielder’s glove being more reliable for hawking. I am still undecided, though leaning towards the catcher’s mitt. (Leave you suggestions/thoughts below.)

Step 5: Make a cool sign for the game. I love making signs. I try to find short clever bursts that are unique and original in their own way. I kept seeing the Twins use “#BeastMode” and knew that I could incorporate that with Bigfoot quite easily. So I settled on “Hard Core #BeastMode” for my sign (and added my hashtag that I use to track the adventure on Twitter). It was short and sweet, I was quite literally going to the game in “hard core beast mode”.

Step 6: Test out the costume and make any alterations needed. The mask gets more than a bit warm. I decided to cut some slits in it with a razorblade in order to get a little more airflow. Then I decided to open up the eyeholes a little more, since the view was a bit obstructed. After the eyeholes were cut I used some super-glue and pen-casings to make the ridges prominent on the eyebrow, and keep the eye-socket from collapsing. there are still a few alterations to the suit itself that I’d like to make, but they haven’t been completed yet. I am thinking about trying to cut away some of the cloth from the body/chest area. Since it’s going to be around 100 AND I’ll have a jersey on, why not eliminate some of the layering? We’ll see what works out…

Step 7: Receive the jersey from an off-shore source. Again, I really wanted a nice jersey, but I didn’t have that much cash to spend, plus, I’ll be sweaty and gross, and may just need to dispose of this jersey since it’ll get so gross. With the high temps and high humidity in the Midwest, and who knows what in China (and the slow-boat it came on), the jersey was a bit damp and had some mold growing when i received it. I didn’t have a chance to return it and NEEDED the jersey, so I had to wash it a couple times and scrub it and kill the mold. Luckily the mold issue was limited to the fabric backing used to sew the numbers to the jersey. So I was able to rip off the mold and make everything ‘like new”.

Step 8: Get the poses down… (Gotta creep while the Royals pitch, right?)

Step 9: Finish the loose ends, pack up, and get to the park early! I have the Early Bird Tour tickets, they’ll get me in the stadium early for BP. I just have to find a good time to put on the costume. I don’t want to be dying before I even go in the park, but I also don’t want to be told that I cannot bring in that much stuff (bag size coming into play, since I’ll already have a camera bag full of goodies). We’ll just have to see how the weather is.

Step 10: THIS IS WHERE I NEED YOUR HELP!!! Watch the game, tell your friends, track my adventures on Twitter. Use the hash-tag I referenced above (#BigfootInKC2012) and ask questions and let me know when your spot me. If you are going to the game and see me, feel free to take a picture of me in the stands and if you’d like come down and take a photo with me.

This adventure should be very fun and entertaining. Hopefully I catch a ball and get some cool photos. I’ll be sure to keep everyone up to date and blog about the experience later (hopefully plenty of photos, too).